“Imaging,” as the term is used herein, refers to one or more of the processes involved in the display and/or printing of graphics and/or text. The term “imaging device,” as used herein, refers to any electronic device that provides functionality related to imaging. Some examples of imaging devices include multi-function peripheral devices, printers, copiers, scanners, facsimile devices, document servers, image servers, electronic whiteboards, digital cameras, digital projection systems, medical imaging devices, and so forth.
For various reasons, an imaging device may be logically connected to (i.e., placed in electronic communication with) one or more computer systems, which may be referred to as host computer systems (or simply as hosts). For example, a printer may be connected to a network of computer systems. This allows the users of the various computer systems on the network to use the printer.
Different kinds of computer software facilitate the use of imaging devices. The computer system that is used to image (e.g., print) the materials typically has one or more pieces of software that enable it to send information to the imaging device to facilitate the imaging of the materials. If the computer system is on a computer network there may be one or more pieces of software running on one or more computers on the computer network that facilitate the imaging of the materials.
As used herein, the term “imaging job” may refer to information about an imaging-related task that is performed by an imaging device. An imaging job may include image data corresponding to an outputting operation that is to be performed by the imaging device. An imaging job may also include one or more settings that indicate how certain aspects of the desired outputting operation are to be carried out. An example of an imaging job is a print job, which may be a single document or a set of documents that is submitted to a printer for printing.
Under some circumstances, a host computer system may directly despool image data to an imaging device (i.e., without the image data being converted to a different format before being despooled). If the imaging device is a printing device (e.g., a multi-function peripheral device or a dedicated printer), this may be referred to as direct image printing. Some examples of image formats that may be supported for direct image printing include TIFF, JPEG, PNG, GIF, BMP, HD, EXIF, etc.